LTLFTcomposite said:
Nubo said:
The story once again promises a $5000 California Tax credit. However, my understanding is that this only applies to the first 400 vehicles sold. By any stretch of the imagination, those first 400 vehicles are already spoken for. So, anyone reading the story who hasn't already reserved a Leaf, is being misled. Or, is there some chance that the tax credit will be extended?
Does the state have that kind of money?
It looks like a funding plan for an additional $5 million for FY 2010-11 was approved on June 24.
Now, though the Funding Plan is approved, I have no idea whether the funds for 2010-11 have been allocated.
Here's a link to the CARB web site on funding plans.
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aqip/fundplan/fundplan.htm
Notice and click on the item below Fiscal Year 2010-11 Funding Plan, the item identified as "NEW Approved AB 118 Air Quality Implementation Program Funding Plan For Fiscal Year 2010-11". On page 16 of the .pdf, you'll read that the CARB staff suggested and was apparently approved to add $5 million for FY 2010-11, bringing the total at the time of the proposal to $9.1 million available funds. This would provide rebates of $5,000 for "up to 1,600 ZEVs"
My opinion, of course, is that this number is still woefully inadequate.
The other significant thing I noticed was that there was included a proposal for a waiting list to be established for those who requested rebates but were not funded due to insufficient remaining funds, and a suggestion that additional funds might be available from the Energy Commission. This is reassuring to me because I was concerned about being caught in a "gap" between funding periods. A waiting list sounds fair.
Edit: Here is the California Energy Commission's 2010-11 Investment Plan. I haven't yet found the pot of money that CARB might tap for additional funds.
http://www.energy.ca.gov/2010publications/CEC-600-2010-001/CEC-600-2010-001-CTD.PDF
I found it funny that CARB included the contingency that if no more than half of the 2009-10 funds have been requested by the first quarter of 2011, that they consider reallocating the funds to other programs. Assuming the roll-out plans of Nissan, Coda and others are close to realistic, CARB are dreaming if they think that all of the rebates won't be snapped up quickly.